June 18, 2012

“There is no one that has more experience or understanding of the presidential debate process than John Kerry,” said David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist. “He’s an expert debater who has a fundamental mastery of a wide range of issues, including Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts. He’s the obvious choice.”

Who should he have picked? And who should Romney pick to play Obama? I asked that second question out loud and Meade said "Rob Portman!" I see that Portman played Obama for John McCain. (And Portman played Lieberman for Dick Cheney in 2000.)

It would be difficult to find an exact match for Obama's keen wit, patriotism, and good character, but perhaps in some red state there's a junior college sociology instructor who's been jailed for bludgeoning a conservative student with one of Howard Zinn's books during a coke binge who would be willing to cut a deal for clemency from the governor.

I doubt that it makes much difference. Kerry is similar to Romney in some respects. The problem would be having to spend so much time with him.

More seriously, the candidates mostly waste the debate opporunities and just play if safe, trying to play out the clock without a mistake and getting off a few scripted line. This time, Obama is vulnerable because he has a record that Romney can use against him, if he is smart. But, Romney also needs to listen to whatever deceptions Obama offers and, gently, call him on them.

In these TV debates I would think your opponent's style would be as important, if not more so, than the content of his remarks.

I agree with this. The main problem with Kerry is that he's a vain fool. Romney doesn't come off as vain or stupid.

This doesn't surprise me in the least though. It's hard to imagine that Obama's people have a realistic assessment of Romney. How could they? They (and pretty much all progressive true believers) sit in a bubble and they all agree that Romney is a vampire cultist. Their own guy is the philosopher king--how could they not underestimate Romney? Do you think anyone in the Romney camp is taking Obama lightly?

"Jimmy Carter ought to play Obama since Obama has been replaying his one man roadshow act for 3 years."

Have you heard the argument going around in some circles the last few days? It questions whether the job of president is too big for one man and perhaps something ought to change. All I can do is shake my head and laugh because I remember the exact same argument from the Jimmy Carter era. That's what some people were saying back then. It turns out the solution wasn't to change the system but rather to change the president. When Ronald Reagan was elected that argument disappeared. That shows it wasn't something about the job that was lacking, it was something about the man. The same is true with Obama.

Rob Portman is a brilliant debate stand-in. He might have had a decisive effect on the 2000 election by prepping Bush. WaPo reported:

During the 2000 presidential campaign, the staff for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush asked him to play the part of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph I. Lieberman in mock debates that the Bush team had arranged for Richard B. Cheney, its desired running mate. Portman proved so formidable that, before the last of Bush’s three debates, he found himself in the dining room of the Texas governor’s mansion, playing Al Gore against Bush. He had prepared for the practice session by watching tapes of virtually every Gore debate he could find.

“There were only about a dozen of us in that room,” remembers the campaign’s policy director, Joshua B. Bolten, who would later become director of the Office of Management and Budget and Bush’s White House chief of staff. “Rob really threw some nasty jabs at [Bush]. Then, while [Bush] was answering a question, Rob nonchalantly walked up to him and invaded his space. Bush asked: ‘What are you doing?’ Rob said something like, ‘I’m coming into your space.’ ”

Bush shook his head. “Gore’s never going to do that.”

“He might do it,” Portman said. “He’s done it in other debates.”

Days later, in the real debate, Gore rose from a stool and walked toward Bush. Ready for it, Bush did a mock double-take and smiled dismissively at him.

Kerry’s tales of “derring-do” extend to impressing gullible or willingly worshipful reporters with tales of his “secret” exploits in Cambodia. “Secret” because the Kerry campaign admits there is no paperwork anywhere to verify their man’s “missions” into the Heart of Darkness. How convenient!

The myth persists that Kerry, in his noisy, 50-foot swift boat (the last type of sea craft you’d use doing an agent insertion) slipped into Cambodian territory undetected and then back out again. Despite the fact the only thing quieter than the swift boat Kerry had, is a CH-53 helicopter at treetop level!

A sycophantic story in the Kerry-friendly Washington POST tells about a Kerry staffer hinting to the visiting reporter about a “secret compartment” in Kerry’s briefcase.

“He carries the black attaché everywhere,” the staffer whispered, several times. “Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside. Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open the case.”

Kerry pulls out a hat, a little mildewy. The green camouflage was fading and the seams fraying.

“My good luck hat,” Kerry said, happy to see it. “Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia.”

“Kerry put on the hat, pulling the brim over his forehead. His blue, button-down shirt and tie clashed with the camouflage. He pointed his finger and raised his thumb, creating an imaginary gun. He looked silly, yet suddenly his campaign message was clear: citizen-soldier, linking patriotism to public service. It wasn’t complex after all; it was Kerry.

When Mitt Romney was a college freshman, he told fellow residents of his Stanford University dormitory that he sometimes disguised himself as a police officer -- a crime in many states, including Michigan and California, where he then lived. And he had the uniform on display as proof.

So recalls Robin Madden, who had also just arrived as a freshman, the startling incident began when Romney called him and two or three other residents into his room, saying, "Come up, I want to show you something." When they entered Romney's room, "and laid out on his bed was a Michigan State Trooper's uniform."...

Said Madden in a recent interview, "He told us that he had gotten the uniform from his father," George Romney, then the Governor of Michigan, whose security detail was staffed by uniformed troopers. "He told us that he was using it to pull over drivers on the road. He also had a red flashing light that he would attach to the top of his white Rambler."

In Madden's recollection, confirmed by his wife Susan, who also attended Stanford during those years, "we thought it was all pretty weird. We all thought, 'Wow, that's pretty creepy.' And after that, we didn't have much interaction with him."

Mitt Romney has neither a Magic Hat nor false recollections seared, seared into his memory. Nor did he marry his fortune.

No, but he believes in a guy with a magic hat, and false recollections seared, seared into his memory which Romney accepts as his own. And both Romney and his "prophet" made their money through swindling people.

I don't know how any of you can look in a mirror after backing this fraud,...

In a serious vein, I remember reading somewhere that Romney should pick Newt to play Obama, under the theory that Romney needs to prep against someone who hates him and will be constantly on the attack.

IMO, he needs to find someone who can mimic all of Obama's qualities - passive-aggressiveness, ponderous speaking, outright lying and construction of straw men.

I agree with JAL and Christopher in MA. Romney should debate Gingrich, and Obama should debate Jon Stewart.

The only snag is that Romney has already debated Gingrich a wearyingly long number of times. But Gingrich pretending to be Obama he has not. And the Newtster is probably still pissed off enough that he'd put some effort (and venom) into the practice.